Avenues of Honour

Sophie discovers a project that's helping to preserve the memory of our Diggers

I'm in the Adelaide suburb of Rose Park with PhD researcher Sarah Cockerell. Since 2004, she's been part of the Avenues of Honour Project.

"Partly it's about showing Australia how many Avenues we have and getting them to see these beautiful trees that we've got, but it's also about commemoration - ideally we'd like to see every single soldier that Australia has lost with a tree by 2015," Sarah says.

"David Lawry, the Director of Treenet - a street tree research and advocacy group - asked me how many avenues there were. I figured this would take five minutes, I'll look on Google, find the answer. But it proved to be a lot harder than I expected! We don't have any previous research that put together all the Avenues. We didn't know how many there were."

Initially, Sarah thought there might be around 100 - but this was a serious underestimation. Currently, she's up to 568.

It is sobering to consider why there are so many Avenues of Honour in Australia. In the First World War alone, of the 300,000 volunteers deployed, 60,000 never made it home. The reason Avenues of Honour were so popular in Australia is probably due to our remoteness. By planting trees, grieving families and communities gave themselves tangible memorials to loved ones and mates whose actual graves were out of reach on the other side of the world.

"These trees really are a poignant symbol for the dead," says Sophie.

Sarah agrees. "Yeah, they are because they're alive - they represent life. They grow, they develop, they die."

However, many of the trees planted - trees like elms or oaks - would live for hundreds of years in their native Europe, but not here. There are a number of factors that cause their decline.

"We've got a completely different climate," Sarah explains, "and most of these trees are under water stress most of the time. They have far less rainfall than they're used to. There's soil compaction from roads and traffic and people walking around. There's also disruption of the root system. Every time the road gets resurfaced or the piping gets re-laid, there are pests and diseases that take advantage of trees that are already weakened."

"When we look around this particular Avenue, which was planted in Adelaide in 1919, I can see a lot of the older trees are looking very senescent - they're losing limbs. I would imagine it's a very emotional issue when it comes to replanting these Avenues of Honour - taking out mature trees and putting in smaller trees," states Sophie.

"A lot of these trees are at the end of their lifespan and we're starting to have to have replacements. There is no easy answer. There's no easy way to remove trees of this size and replace them with smaller saplings. There's no way around it," Sarah says.

However, Some Avenues of Honour have disappeared completely. Some have been simply due to the age of the trees, whilst in some cases the towns themselves no longer exist. As part of the Avenues of Honour project, a number of old avenues are being replaced - like one of the ones `Sarah and I visited on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, near Adelaide Airport.

Sarah thinks that's a sign the wider community cares: "When the community cares for the trees, they last well. Avenues like this are beautiful - they're worth preserving just for their own sake, but they're also local history and war history."

"They're about realising the consequences of war and preserving the memory of that for future generations."

Broadcast:
Sat 20 Apr 2013, 12:00am

Published:
Sat 20 Apr 2013, 12:00am

Transcript

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Sophie Thomson

SOPHIE THOMSON: I'm in the Adelaide suburb of Rose Park with PhD researcher Sarah Cockerell. Since 2004, she's been part of the Avenues of Honour Project.

SARAH COCKERELL: Partly it's about showing Australia how many Avenues we have and getting them to see these beautiful trees that we've got, but it's also about commemoration - ideally we'd like to see every single soldier that Australia has lost with a tree by 2015.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Wow. Now that's a fairly daunting task.

SARAH COCKERELL: It is huge, but we think it's worth it.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Absolutely. So how did the project come about?

SARAH COCKERELL: Well David Lawry, the Director of Treenet which is a street tree research and advocacy group - he asked me how many avenues there were and I figured this would take 5 minutes, I'll look on Google, find the answer. Proved to be a lot harder than I expected. We don't have any previous research that put together all the Avenues. We didn't know how many there were.

SOPHIE THOMSON: And how many did you come up with initially?

SARAH COCKERELL: I figured maybe there was 100 or so from the initial research, but there's obviously a lot more than that now.

SOPHIE THOMSON: And what's the number up to now then?

SARAH COCKERELL: Currently I'm up to 568.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Wow.

It is sobering to consider why there are so many Avenues of Honour in Australia. In the First World War alone, of the 300,000 volunteers deployed, 60,000 never made it home. The reason Avenues of Honour were so popular in Australia is probably due to our remoteness. By planting trees, grieving families and communities gave themselves tangible memorials to loved ones and mates whose actually graves were out of reach on the other side of the world.

These trees really are a poignant symbol for the dead aren't they?

SARAH COCKERELL: Yeah, they are because they're alive - they represent life. They grow, they develop, they die.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Now these old elms or the oaks behind us, would live for hundreds of years old in their native Europe, but not here?

SARAH COCKERELL: No, we've got a completely different climate and most of these trees are under water stress most of the time. They have far less rainfall than their used to.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Are there other things that cause the decline of these wonderful trees sooner than their natural life?

SARAH COCKERELL: There's soil compaction from roads and just traffic and people walking around. There's also disruption of the root system. Every time the road gets resurfaced or the piping gets re-laid, there are pests and diseases that take advantage of trees that are already weakened.

SOPHIE THOMSON: So when we look around, I can see a lot of the older trees are looking very senescent - they're losing limbs.

SARAH COCKERELL: Yeah. This Avenue was planted in 1919. A lot of these trees are at the end of their lifespan and we're starting to have replacements like this one here.

SOPHIE THOMSON: I would imagine it's a very emotional issue when it comes to replacing these Avenues of Honour - taking out mature trees and putting in smaller trees?

SARAH COCKERELL: Definitely. There is no easy answer. There's no easy way to remove trees of this size and replace them with smaller saplings. There's no way around it.

SOPHIE THOMSON: Now some of the Avenues of Honour have disappeared completely, isn't that right?

SARAH COCKERELL: Yeah, we've lost a lot already, partly due to just natural succession with age of trees, in some cases the towns themselves no longer exist. The community needs to care. When the community cares for the trees, they last well.

SOPHIE THOMSON: As part of the Avenues of Honour project, old avenues are being replaced - like this one - on Sir Donald Bradman Drive near Adelaide Airport.

SARAH COCKERELL: Avenues like this are beautiful. They're worth preserving just for their own sake, but they're also local history and war history. They're about realising the consequences of war and preserving the memory of that for future generations.

COSTA GEORGIADIS: Well this final plant that I'm putting in today is theHakea gibbosaor Hairy Hakea - quite appropriate I'm sure most of you are thinking. Now, if you have a close look, each of these spikes has hair on it which is a typical characteristic of plants growing in coastal areas. This plant produces beautiful cream flowers in winter and it's going to love this sandy, well drained soil. Best of all, it's going to be a perfect playground cubbyhouse - hiding space - for the little birds that we're trying to encourage to the walkway.

So that's about it for our planting here this week. We'll be back over the next month or so to complete it. In the meantime, hope you can join us next week when we'll be looking at contained gardens.

I'll be visiting a fantastic rooftop garden on a Sydney apartment block.

Tino will be finishing off his chicken run, ready for some new arrivals.

And Josh will be giving us some great tips on planting in pots.

So this ANZAC Day, don't forget to take the opportunity to reflect and remember. See you next week.